How to make Christmas sloe gin

For the second year running, I’ve decided to make some sort of berry-infused liquor for Christmas. Here you can see last year’s effort, a cranberry-infused vodka. I also coincidentally ended up making vodka-infused cranberry sauce with it .

This year, I decided to make sloe gin with sloe berries.

You might think that finding sloe berries in London is a hard ask, but I actually bought my berries from eBay. For £5.99 including P&P I was shipped 1lb of freshly picked sloe berries from my seller’s Yorkshire garden. The berries did not disappoint – only one was mouldy and a few were dried up. Do have a look as soon as you can because they’re not always available.

Making sloe gin is really easy. Just buy a litre of gin (I went with the cheap supermarket variety as this actually easier to infuse), and decant half into another bottle. Add 150g sugar to each bottle using a funnel. Prick or score each sloe berry and add to the bottles. Close and shake – hard! Continue to shake everyday for at least a week, then once a week for at least two months.

 

Of course, the hardest bit is the waiting. It’s particularly exciting because I’ve put in my order with my next meat box supplier – not just for the next regular meat box, but for our Christmas eve meat! I won’t reveal the supplier yet but I can reveal that the meat will be a saddle of roe deer, perfect for doing all sorts of things with sloe gin glazes and the like.

If you’re interested in making sloe gin for Christmas, then get brewing. There’s still time! And you can always check out Laura’s (Sifting Sowing) damson gin alternative if you don’t fancy sloe.

PS: Just received a fabulous tip from Alex Wood on Twitter: “Try mixing it with prosecco – best winter cocktail ever!” Sounds boozetastic.